Category: self care

Our body and mind are one continuous single unit. When you are in distress, or are in a period of time when you don’t feel the top, have you ever noticed the same goes for your digestions?

I’ve started to believe this might go both ways, as our physical bodies, our digestive system suffers, our mind in turns follow and becomes dazed and confused.

What is the difference between refined and natural sugar, you asked? Well while we know a little sugar isn’t going to give you cancer or have your body inflamed right away, refined sugar, in the midst of the refining process, tends to have stripped the nutrients of the original ingredients away. So you are left with mainly calories, your body’s fuel, but it provides no nutritional value. That means if your diet contains mainly of refined sugar (read: Also refined carbohydrates), you will have fuel to run the engine, but no nutrients to make sure your engine runs healthily. Moreover, fructose in refined sugars are treated as a toxin in the body and can only be broken down in the liver. This overloads the liver and the excess, untreated fructose get stored and triggers bodily inflammation and liver diseases.

I am on my third complete refined sugar cleanse, and in the past, whenever I mentioned it, people often commented that they wouldn’t be able to do it, that it would be impossible for them. So here I am, to show you, it is in fact very simple, and you don’t need to quit cold turkey and suffer from the sudden change of diet. And here’s my plans of attack (I will include my simple meal plan at the end of this post)

Mental conditioning: Strict diet, short time
The most challenging I find is the starting of the process, most people frown even at the thought of having a long term no sugar diet, that sounds like no fun!
What I find most helpful and manageable is to start with a strict limitation right from the start but begin with segments of short periods of time.What is short period of time? Say, this time around, I’ve started my diet with a 3-days castor oil cleanse, and that was my goal at the start. And by the end of the 3 days, if I felt fine with not having a lot of cravings, I extend it to one week, by the end of one week my body has started to adjust and felt a lot better with this new diet, I went onto extend it for a month, and by the end of the month, honestly I didn’t even want to eat any sweet things anymore.
Starting with a short time but strict plan makes it possible to reach your goal. It gives you the rewarding feeling that you need to keep going. It’s a little bit like luring a small child into eating greens, first you start with a small portion, give it a reward, and increase the requirement gradually.

Switching out the baddies with the goodies
Sugar is addicting, and for my fellow sugar junkies out there, quitting anything sweet all at once is not downright impossible, but pretty damn close.
So allow your body to have the treat of your natural sugar of choice, say if you are crazy about milk chocolate, don’t go all dark/no chocolate straight away, opt for a replacement that resembles the taste. For example I don’t personally like eating candies very much but I am crazy about chocolate, ice cream and the occasional cake. Here are what I use to cheat my own brain into being satisfied:
– Milk chocolate – Dried dates covered in cocoa powder/Raw chocolate mulberries
– Ice cream – Frozen berries covered in heavy cream/replacement cream (add honey if you like) OR Nice cream (You have to try it)
– Cakes, cookies – Opt for banana/maple syrup as replacement sweetener
– Gummys – natural fruit bites /candies with stevia instead of refined sugar/Energy balls

Find your choice of natural sugar
If you don’t like banana, you don’t like dates, the above probably won’t work very well for you. But sit, try, and ask yourself what are some sweet fruit that you like? Perhaps you like grapes, raisins, perhaps you like the taste of honey?Don’t give up as soon as one replacement doesn’t work for you, what we are doing here is not to have a total simulation of the food item that you normally eat, but a acceptable replacement that can trick our brain into accepting.

Say yes to natural sugars, but limit the hours that you are allowed toBeing able to use replacement sugar doesn’t mean you should go nuts and eat as many as you want, fruit sugar and other natural sugar, though natural, consumed in large amount can still turn into excess energy, and these energy in turn gets stored and create the binding agent for inflammations.
During the day, get your natural sugar hits as you need, but after dinner and night snack time, try not to eat any of it. If you are hungry and need something for your mouth, opt for the snack replacements that I mention in the last paragraph of this article.

Cutting refined grains
When I have stepped into phase 2 of the meal plan, I start cutting down refined grains as well. Refined grains like pasta, white rice in effect is one and the same as refined sugar. Over processed, low nutritional value, high on calories.
One common thing people worry about cutting refined carbs is that they will get hungry. But in fact, you don’t need to cut all grains, only to choose the better grains.
Instead of using white rice, I try using a blend of wild/brown rice, quinoa, millets, barley, bulgur. The bigger the variety you can find, the better really. The lesser processed grains contain more fiber, more nutrients. And it fills you up for longer.
If you have a hard time adjusting to the new texture in the beginning, try starting with mixing a small portion of wild grains in your regular rice. Try mixing half plain pasta with half whole grain pasta. Instead of regular bread, try introducing Rye bread into your diet (Nordic style).

Boost up your protein and vegetable intakesAnd as we are cutting down our refined calories, we also need to start upping our protein intakes. Proteins is essential for building muscles and other structural components, to help your immune system AND it fills you up for much longer. Start introducing more protein into your diet, instead of having pure crabs, put in perhaps a piece of chicken, salmon or white fishes. If you prefer veggie options opt in for the varies species of lentils, beans, chickpeas, tofu.
Find the right amount of each of these that will fill you up, and notice the amount of hours that it will keep you full, and slowly adjust to having 20-30% proteins and mostly greens and healthy grains.

For the snackers
I’m a massive snacker, and not having snacks kills me. In fact back in school I was the designated candy carrier in the class, everybody knows they would be able to get some sweets out of me, should they ask. In my recent years I’d gone more into salty snacks and I particularly can’t live without having chips or something resembles chips at least once every other day.
So cutting snacks was super hard, and it is always so incredibly tempting for me.
My solution was nuts, soaked nuts in specific.
If you are a little like me, a little fuzzed about texture of the food, soaked nut might be an option for you.
I keep a jar of soaked almond in the fridge when I’m in the beginning phase of my diet change, and whenever I get incredible tempted, or get so hungry and I need a snack quick, I try to ease with with soaked nuts instead of processed carbs like chips or candy. Occasionally, I pop my own corn and drizzle it with salt, pepper or a little bit of olive oil.

Cheat day
Do I ever cheat, you ask? Yes I definitely do. But I tend to try to stay away from any cheat days in at least the first 3 weeks of my new diet. I would take the occasional ice cream and cake after that, but to be honest at that point on my diet, I didn’t even really like the sensation I get from eating sugar anymore, so the work is done on its own.

I'm sure we all had that moment when we feel as though we have committing ourselves into too much, we threw ourselves into things too quickly and deeply, and ended up feeling as though we don't have enough time, we don't have enough energy. I'm sure we have all felt it before, we aim to please so hard, we end up sacrificing our own happiness.

Do we love ourselves? How much do we love ourselves? How do we love ourselves more?

Here are some of the things I do to remind myself to stay right in the center, and not allowing my innit pursue to pleasing others and archiving some career/physical goal to get in the way of letting myself be happy:

* This is a new series of blog where instead of rambling on, I'll share some tips and ideas on what you can do as well, to get a healthier and better mental and physical health.

1. Meditation

Our mind is so used to having stimulations all the time, to a point that it is obsessed with it. Perhaps you have tried being so restless being idle; perhaps you have caught yourself closing an app and immediately opening it again.

If your mind is prone to fidgeting, start a meditation practice today. It might feel very uncomfortable in the beginning, or you feel unable to sit still and unwind. But don't give up, meditation doesn't have to be a one hour, sitting in lotus with your back straight up kind of practice. Meditation comes in many thousands of methods and form, if the one you tried didn't work, perhaps you just haven't found the type that works for you.

For me finding a voice that I like, that I feel comfortable with has been the issue, hence I have starting making my own free meditation audio clips here, if you already come to class regularly, try them and see if we can trick your mind into relaxing.

2. NOURISHMENT

Movement is medicine. We all know that - if you don't have a physical practice of any modality, it may be a good idea to start one now. It doesn't have to be yoga, perhaps for you it is running, perhaps for you it is hula hopping. Start from a small dose of movement to condition your muscularskeletal body into being lubricated, being smooth again.

Another nourishment sometimes we easily forget is food. In ancient ayurveda and Chinese medicine, food is sometimes referred to as food medicine. The kind of nourishment we absorb through our digestive system is incredibly important to our wellbeing - both mentally and physically.

Sit down and run a check list of what you eat on a good day, and what you eat on a bad day. And highlight any food/meal that includes:

Processed sugar

Refined carbohydrates (Plain white flour, pasta, pizza)

Processed foods (Canned, food from a pack, fast foods)

Large amount of red meat (More than 50% of the portion of your meal)

And run a list of what you can use as an internative to the identified less ideal food sources. For example, substituting your after dinner ice cream with frozen berries with cream; or perhaps instead of regular pasta substitute that with soya pasta, or zucchini pasta. Replace your processed sugar with natural sweetener like banana, agave. And instead of filling your belly with red meat and fast carbs, try to fill your belly with white meat, or vegetable protein.

I'm going on a no processed sugar diet again from today (7.March) until the end of this year, and it does wonders for my body. It reduces my inflammation, my sluggishness. I invite you to join me. You don't have to start with a rest of the year commitment. In fact, if you have never done it before, I encourage you to start with a 1+2 weeks schedule. Start with cutting dessert and replacing it with healthier alternatives in the first week, and then commit to not having any processed sugar in your diet. Keep your progress in a journal, perhaps you are just writing them down, or perhaps you are joining me on instagram using #byesugar to post inspirations, meal prep for yourself and other people.

Feel it and notice the difference it makes in your body.

3. SPACE

Get your own sacred, personal, non-doing space.

Dedicate time in your daily routine to have 10 minutes of doing nothingness. No looking at the phone, no being on the computer, no cooking, talking, planning. Try to sit somewhere that you feel safe and undisturbed, and observe.

Perhaps you are the kind of people who like to look up into the night sky and watch the stars. Perhaps it is on your commute to work, in the middle of a walk way, of a train platform. Perhaps it is in the morning, when you take your walk to where you need to go.

Turn off your judgemental brain, turn off the need to process any information, turn off the action list. And let the surrounding steep into you.

Create this space for yourself, if you mind fidgets, it itches, set a timer, make your mind have to stay away from any of these stimulations. Perhaps in the beginning you will need help from the music, perhaps in the beginning you can only stay away for a minute or two. But a daily practice of detaching and making space is going to translate, and it is going to decrease your anxiety, your stress level.

If you are having a hard time making a discipline of it, find and join a restorative yoga class. This is a type of yoga that has very little physical component, the practice is made for conditioning the mind into accepting and facing stillness. Perhaps you won't feel changed in one session but try it a few times and let your mind slowly adapt into the new mode and condition, and watch as that transforms your energy and stress level.

4. Go Upside Down

At the very beginning of me teaching yoga I was so nervous every time. One trick that I learned was to do a Downward facing dog before going into class.

When you are having a particular bad day, where it is difficult to find stillness and move our consciousness from our head towards our lower extremities, try switching your perspective.

It doesn't have to be a complicated posture, perhaps you just lean your buttock onto the wall and release your head and spine down. Notice how your breath changes immediately, notice how your body slows down immediately. Take deep breathes until you are ready to face your on-going activities again.

5. Decide your anchor

It has long been discussed that minerals are energetically aiding us. I have numerous palm stones and tumble stones, whether or not the stones has energetic properties, I am not going to discuss here, but what I find very useful is the shear act of palming an object, in my case, a mineral stone.

Decide on an object that is you, that belongs to you, an object that preferably fits neatly into the size of your palm and has a texture like you like. Whenever you feel unease, or feel a certain anxiety or difficulty coming up, hold onto your object. Focus your mind onto the sensation of holding it, the texture and the temperature instead. Experiment with this and notice if it makes any difference in your peace of mind.

I hope no matter which ones draw to you more, you will find a little something that helps.

Let me know what you would like me to write about by commenting below, or sending me a message at info@yogawithsandy.dk. Have a wonderful day.

When I was small my mum used to make her own soya milk. I never understood. Soya milk is cheap where I am from, and widely available.

Living in Scandinavia has triggered my wish to have more soya products, the silky, sold everywhere tofu, the tofu skins, the tofudella. And tofus are expensive here, boy oh boy are they expensive.

So I decided to go on my venture to make my own tofu.

The adventure started with my finding the soya beans. Believe it or not, soya beans are not so easily found in supermarkets here, at least I never personally was able to find them. So I ordered my soya online, borrowed a big pot from my in-laws. And I was ready to go.

Before we start the recipe, I have to say making tofu or soya milk is a messy process. I had soya piece everywhere in the kitchen. And because of my lack of proper pressing equipment, my tofus were falling apart in the edges a little bit.

But hey, I tried and I liked the trying.

Here’s what I needed:

1 kg of soya, soaked over night

Close to 3 litres of water

Lemon juice, 150 ml

Cheese cloth

Sieve

Big ol’ pot (I had one but it would have been better to have two)

What I did was:

First I soaked the beans overnight, taking out the bad looking one

Rinse and cover beans with enough water, blend. I blended everything until smooth, added the remaining water and proceeded to bring the pot on the stove

I then boiled the mixture over high heat with a constant stir until it comes to a boil

The mixture is to simmer for another 20 minute once it’s boiling. You need to keep stirring the whole time. Boiling soya mixture is a tricky business and it burns and boil over very easily.

After 20 minutes of boil I take my pot off and let it cool. Let the mixture cool considerably before you proceed

I grabbed a cheese cloth (use a sieve if you have one, I didn’t and regretted greatly) and filter out the fibers of the soya bean from the mixture. Dont throw these away, they are called okra and is a good replacement to meat. Season well and fry as replacement to minced meat.

When I got my soya milk I take some out for drinking and return the rest onto the stove to boil again

When the soya milk has started to smoke up, not quite bubbling I took the heat off (remember to still keep stirring the whole time)

Then I put my prepared lemon juice in , stir well and let it sit

As your soya milk starts processing it will turn to look something like this.

I then carefully not breaking the piece transferred the mixture to a mold lined with triple layered cheese cloth. I used a plastic box that comes with grapes here. But it is better if you have one of those tofu moods. You need a box like shape that’s deep and with drainage holes underneath.

After I transferred the liquid to a good height. I folded the clothes over and place heavy object on top. Now my mistake was not having an exact size object to weight so the pressure was uneven. I also didn’t use heavy enough press in the beginning so it took me a while to form the tofu into the right shape.

Let pressed until the texture is desirable (between 20 – 40 minutes)

Soak tofu in salted water and refridgate up to 4 days

This was a messy project but it was also my first try. The result is very creamy soya milk and not very firm tofu.

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This is me, having taught my 07.00 am class, making my breakfast. This Wednesday is set out to be an exceptionally long day. Morning class, work on website, meeting and studio errands and two more classes in the evening. My day today starts from 06.00 until 20.30 when I finish the last class.

Yet this is me, between my responsibilities, making myself and hubby some banana pancakes.

Life is activities. No matter how passive one is, one always would like some degree of activity.

But life is also about balance, working and being in activity all day for some of us is stressful. So in the midst of all this, do you take some time in between, and do something that is fun and nurturing for yourself?

My choice of this day is a low carbs banana pancake. Does it taste good? Does banana and egg ever taste not good to you?

And here the very simple, 5 minutes recipe:

Ingredients:

2 riped banana

2 eggs

Cinnamon powder

Coconut oil

Option to add whole wheat flour

Steps:

Mash banana with a fork

Beat eggs

Mix the two together, beat in cinnamon powder, one table spoon of coconut oil. And option to add in 1.5 table spoons of whole wheat flour

Let mixture sit

Heat a small pan, add coconut oil or butter

Fry small, flat scoops of mixture on the pan. Fry for approx. 2 minutes each or until golden brown

Every since my deadly week of Easter teaching that sets the record of 19 classes a week, I’ve been allowing myself to take up to 3 classes a day. And with the hard wood flooring, walking off the mats around class, me being a little bit of a wuss, my feet hurts after these 3 classes days.

Ever had one of those incidents where you focus so intensely, you forget your own physical state? Well while I’m walking around making sure people are focusing on their own body, most of the time I forget about my own.

The good thing though, is I get to get a little treat of foot bathing. Foot bath has long been considered an effective remedy in the Chinese medicine. It is thought to increase blood and chi flow through infusing the bathing water with herbal medicine, and letting it seep through the major meridian points located at the bottom of your feet. In traditional Chinese medicine, your feet are very important, much like a tree, our torso is the trunk of the tree and our feet are the roots of the tree. How does the tree get healthy if not for healthy roots?

On top of that, it is just a really good reason to get this treat of the day anyway.